Lesson-4-던

You have already learned several ways to express past actions in Korean, such as using the -았/었/였어요 sentence ending for plain past tense sentences and -(으)ㄴ verb ending to modify a noun with an action verb. In this lesson, we will introduce something that is similar to -(으) ㄴ, but a little bit different.

-던 = Noun + that (someone) used to + Verb

When you add -던 at the end of a verb stem, it expresses that you “used to” do or be something. The difference between -(으)ㄴ and -던 is that -던 implies that the past action or state did not continue or has been completed.

For example, with the verb 가다 (= to go), if you say 간 곳, it means a place that “you went to” in the past, but if you say 가던 곳, it means that “you used to go there” but somehow, the act of going there came to an end and did not continue.

With the verb 보다 (= to see), if you say 본 영화, it means a movie that you “watched” before, but if you say 보던 영화, it implies that you did not finish it.

Ex) 어제 보던 영화 = a movie one was watching yesterday (but did not finish / did not continue to watch)

-던 and -았/었/였던

With action verbs, it is sufficient to just use -던, but you can make the meaning of the past tense stronger by adding -았/었/였-. With descriptive verbs, it is almost always more natural to use -았/었/였던.

Ex)
예쁘다 = to be pretty
→ 예쁘던 (less natural)
→ 예뻤던 (more natural)

작다 = to be small
→ 작던 (less natural)
→ 작았던 (more natural)

비싸다 = to be expensive
→ 비싸던 (less natural)
→ 비쌌던 (more natural)

So remember, if a state or an action that used to happen did not continue or came to an end and you are no longer doing it, you can use -던 or -았/었/였던.

Sample Sentences

예전에 제가 자주 가던 곳이에요.
= I used to frequently go to this place in the past.
= It is a place that I often used to go to before.
* The person is not going there anymore or as often.

예뻤던 경은 씨가 지금은...
= Kyeong-eun, who used to be pretty, is now...
* Since 예쁘다 is a descriptive verb, you must use 예뻤던, not 예쁘던.

작년에는 키가 작았던 석진 씨가 지금은 키가 커요.
= Seokjin, who was short last year, is now tall.
* 작은 (x), 작던(x)

친했던 친구들이 지금은 다 외국에 살아요.
= The friends I used to be close to are all living overseas now.
* 친한 (x), 친하던(x)

지난주에 이야기하던 거예요.
= This is what we were talking about last week [but did not finish].
* If you say, “지난주에 이야기한 거예요”, it means, “This is what we talked about last week.”

이거 누가 먹던 거예요?
= Who was eating this?

여기 있던 가게가 없어졌어요.
= The store that used to be here is gone.

여기 있던 핸드폰 못 봤어요?
= Haven't you seen the phone that was here?